a-chan knits!

2006 State Fair

aimee noel — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:08:00 +0000

SUC52436.JPG, originally uploaded by a-chan.

I have this problem when it comes to fairs. I have to have cotton candy. If you don't like it, then you probably won't understand. It's like Richard always having to have a deep-fried twinkie. I think it's gross, but he just has to have one.

Anyways, I also have a problem where I can't post an entry without a knitting photo. See, I knit that wrist warmer way back when I first started knitting (the 3rd or 4th go-round, that is). It's horrible. It was the only cotton yarn I had and I really wanted it in cotton. It's knit flat and has a very wonky-ly seam. I still wear it when I find it (I do loose it a lot). And here it is at the fair... matching my cotton candy. Life is interesting.

Anyways, the reason for my post: Have you been over to the Yarn Harlot recently? Stephanie has really outdone herself this time. She has almost 800 comments on her last post! And she has mentioned Portland. Go read it, it's very worth it. It's about non-knitters not taking knitting seriously.

Flickr is great!

aimee noel — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 07:09:00 +0000

So, I talked my mom into a flickr account because I love mine so much and I knew that she would love it just as much. Well, I was right. She's uploaded like 2X more pictures than I have. It's fun to see all the pictures that she's taken. Some of them I have never seen before, or it's been a couple of years since I've seen them.

This last batch that she uploaded had some of my old FOs in them!! Super exciting! These two hats are pre-blog. They might have even been some of my first hats completed.

Anyways, here's me knitting on our way to the beach for my cousin's wedding reception:

And here is the finished hat on my beautiful niece (being held by my aunt):

This would be Keags with his hat. Apparently, he really liked it and use to wear it around the house:

Last, but not least, a picture showing my haircut back then (about 2 going on 3 years ago - that would be Laurie that I'm holding). Do I like my hair that short?? Don't I like it long? I'm so confused. I saw this picture and I really wanted to cut my hair short again... I don't know. I probably should leave it long until after the wedding because I want my hair up and I don't want to have to use any fake hair....

Square!

aimee noel — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:55:00 +0000

SUC53675.JPG, originally uploaded by a-chan.

Here is my square for Larissa's square-along.

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, not sure on the color, I'll have to look for the tag
Needles: 3US
Pattern: secret square pattern from Larissa's future book
Size: Blocked to 7.5 inches

This took me a few evening knitting sessions and one afternoon. It could be done in one sitting if I had the time. However, with all the baby blankets I'm working on, all my other knitting time is very limited (like 20-30 minutes before bed)

Next up, I have some old leftover pink yarn from a baby hat that I think might work for one of these squares. If it doesn't work, then I have some other sock yarn I might raid.

Oh, and Sophie Rae Danger was born this morning! Babies, babies everywhere.

square to be

aimee noel — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 07:10:00 +0000

SUC53621.JPG, originally uploaded by a-chan.

Here's a sneak peek at the yarn I choose to knit my square for Larissa's square along. It's done, but not blocked. It will probably block to 7.5"

I've been working on some blankets and a hat for my new nephew. He came a month early, but all's good. Everyone is home and healthy. The niece isn't liking it too much, but she'll get use to it. The blanket I'm knitting for Baby Evan is black and dark green Reynold's Utopia. It's the best acrylic yarn I've ever knit with. His hat is some ggh Aspen. I love that yarn. I think I'll need to buy some for a hat for myself. It's so squishy!

I started Baby Andrew's blanket and it looks real cool. It's just some varigated acrylic I got at the craft store. But it's blue and white and it's coming out to look like winter camo. Super-neat!

I'm still at a stand still with Baby Sophie's blanket. The yarn store hasn't gotten a new shipment of Plymouth Encore and I'm totally out. I might need to pick a new color or order some online.

Speaking of ordering online, I'm super excited about Blue Moon Fiber Art's geisha! I'm not sure what colorway I'm going to order, but I'm so going order a skein as soon as payday comes... a whole week. Not sure if I can last. I might do a clapotis or a Print o' the Wave stole. I'm super scared of knitting the PotWS, but I think I'm ready to bite the bullet and do some real lace.

Snow Day!!!

aimee noel — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:38:00 +0000

Snow Day!!!
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I knit this hat over 2 years ago. It was before I fixed my twisted stich. I still like to wear it even though it's not perfect. I wore it today in the snow and it kept my head really warm.... I think it's chunky encore, but ti's been so long that that is only a guess. I would like to knit another one so it's perfect. I like chunky hats.

Kinda big update

aimee noel — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:03:00 +0000

I've been kinda busy the last month or so with my knitting. First were the Meatheads (see previous posts), then there was dishcloths (knit like 13 of them for Christmas presents, this is the lonely leftover):

And some more Meatheads for my cousins, but I didn't get any pictures of those. I should email them and ask for a photo shoot.

Then there are the scarves:

My fave:

Then there are some baby sweaters that are 90% done:

And then there's the socks! My first socks! So exciting! One pair was the last FO in 2006 and the second pair is the first project started and finished in 2007. (one scarf was started in 2006 and finished in 2007)

The green pair is for me:

The blue pair is for Erin (and a little bit snug on my foot):

And some WIP's:

Sophie's blanket:

Purple mittens:

Not pictured Christmas knitting: A scarf for my aunt out of trellis sparklie yarn and mittens for Sarah.

Meathead number 3

aimee noel — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 05:23:00 +0000

Meathead number 3, originally uploaded by a-chan.

Colors are off again because lack of lighting. I need to set my alarm earlier tomorrow so I will get up and take pictures in daylight.

Specs:
Meathead pattern knit on size 17 needles (16' circs and dpns) to get gauge
colors are sable (brown), kiwi and fuscia

Decoration is a bunch of old butterly beads found in my old bead stash. My niece helped pick them out because it's going to be her hat.

Meathead #3

aimee noel — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 04:53:00 +0000

I've finished my 3rd meathead, however, there are no pictures because I can't figure out what I want to put on it for embellishment. Maybe a yo-yo? Or a super-cool button?

The hat was knit with lamb's pride bulky in kiwi, sable, and fuscia. I like it a lot, but nothing is inspiring me. Perhaps I should dig through my craft room some more. I finally got it semi-organized today.

Meathead #2

aimee noel — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:28:00 +0000

This was the first Meathead I knit. I didn't check my guage and knit it with the size US15 circular and dpns. I knit the small size, but it turned out even smaller than it was suppose to. I had tons of fuscia left over.

The colors in this picture are off. The color I used was fuscia and the granny square is emerald and olive greens. It's dark by the time I get home from work, so I had to use the flash.

The granny square was inspired by a bunch of old granny squares I found while digging through my craft supplies trying to figure out the best thing to put on the hat.

Meathead Knit-along

aimee noel — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 03:11:00 +0000

Meathead Knit-along
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I was happy to join Larissa's knit-along to test knit this hat for her book. The pattern was really great. Nice and easy and fast! I love knitting with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride bulky yarn.

I used my US size 17 16" circs and dpns to knit the hat in the round to avoid seaming. It was a quick knit, coming in under 2 hours. I crocheted an anime style vein for the decoration over the left ear.

I'm not sure how the point looks on me, but I like how this hat turned out. This is the first of two hats I knit. The other one is in fuscia and it's smaller because I knit the smaller size and I didn't check my gauge, so it's really small. I'll get a picture of it later.

Pinwheel blanket

aimee noel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:41:00 +0000

Pinwheel blanket
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I took this a couple of days ago during my state fair photo shoot. I'm binding off now, so I'm a bit further than I was.

I think I'm going to knit something for myself before I start any more baby knitting. I bought some yarn for a scarf and I really want to finish it. I also bought some blue and white striping sock yarn to knit some Animal Crossing socks for a costume I want to put together. I might try to knit two at a time, toe up... and yes, these would be my first actual pair of socks. I started one awhile ago, but I've frogged it. Wish me luck!

little halter top

aimee noel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:38:00 +0000

little halter top
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

Another Katja from knitty. I've knit so many of these that this one might be the last one. They are so cute.

baby sweater

aimee noel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:37:00 +0000

baby sweater
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I love this green. I'm not sure who this is for yet. None of the people having babies have found out if they are girls or boys. I did buy some dark blue in this same yarn for another one like this. I'm planning on knitting the same pattern in red, as well, because my cousin's fave color is red and he's going to make his kid like red.

Blue ribbon!

aimee noel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:34:00 +0000

Blue ribbon!
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

Eeep! I actually got a blue ribbon! Kinda exciting. I still don't really like how it turned out and I'm thinking about ripping it out and doing some more felting. Or whatever. Maybe I'll felt it as is and see if it will fight one of my nieces.

Red ribbon

aimee noel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:33:00 +0000

Red ribbon
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I really liked how this bag turned out. The judges didn't like my yo-yo's. They thought I should have done felted flowers.. Whatever. I'm more of a mixed media kinda person to begin with.

I am thinking about taking the yo-yo's off and doing some embroidery on it... or maybe some buttons.

baby halter

aimee noel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:30:00 +0000

baby halter
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

Didn't win anything. But I still thing it's darn cute!! I love these things.

State Fair Knit-along

aimee noel — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:02:00 +0000

Well, I guess I mentioned doing the State Fair Knit-along in my last post. It's getting closer to the time to turn my stuff in and I'm not quite done with them. I have some ends to weave in on my Blackberry, and the One Skein Wonder. I'm not too happy with the baby hat, so I might buy new yarn and re-knit it. Katja is ready too go. My felted bag needs some more felting and some decorating. I was thinking of putting some yo-yo's on it.

Needless to say, I'm going to be crafting all day today. However, I might get distracted by the baby sweater I'm knitting out of Last Minute Knitted Gifts cuz it's coming along nice and fast (0-6 month size). It's out of Plymouth yarn's Fantasy Naturale 100% cotton mercerized. I'm loving it. I used it for my niece's Katja and it turn out nice. I love how this yarn is so soft once knit... And it's relatively cheap, compaired to some of the other cotton's I've come across in various LYS.

Oh, and I have pictures!
Blackberry:

Baby hat:

Felted bag:

Baby sweater:

Bunny in a dress

aimee noel — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:24:00 +0000

Bunny in a dress
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

Started: 6/29/06
Finished: 7/1/06
Yarn: Cotton Tot's by Bernat (100% cotton, don't know the yardage)
Needles: US size 7
Size: 12 months
Pattern: Katja from Knitty.com (too lazy to link, but it's one of the suprises from this last issue

Notes: I pretty much followed the instructions all the way... This might be a first for me. I'm not sure if it's going to be long enough. My cousin is going to try it on Anna and let me know.

Will I knit this pattern again? Yup, I'm already most of the way done with a size 3 months for the Fair-a-long. Then I'm going to start one for my own niece and one for a lady at work's soon to be adopted baby girl. I love this pattern. It's so cute. I guess the only change I'll really do is putting a couple more rows on the bottom.

Pinwheel blanket panic!

aimee noel — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:17:00 +0000

Pinwheel blanket panic!
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

This is an old story now because the blanket has already been gifted. But I need to tell it.

At what point do you frog a couple of lines?? I passed over a couple of mistakes, mainly just yarn overs I forgot to do. Easily fixed.

Then I got the great idea to do an eyelet row. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I made the mistake of thinking I could just do a yarn over every other stitch and then knit two together the next row... Sad to say that I was wrong. It was a mess. 400 stitches that had to be frogged and then picked back up again.

To make this worse, I picked the worst time to do the ripping... In the car, when there was only 10 minutes till our destination. I took this picture when we stopped. I folded the darn thing up and shoved it in my too small knitting bag (yeah, that ugly plaid thing in the picture).

Then, I chose another bad time to pick up the stitches... on the Max on the way to work in the morning.

I'm happy to say that I did recover all the stitches and went on to successfully do two eyelet rows. I'm very proud of myself. What makes it better is that the gift was appreciated.

Now, I found out that another cousin is having another child, so that's 3 maybe 4 blankets I have to knit, instead of 2 maybe 3. Then again, I'm not sure if I want to be around 3 pregnant women.... but I'm a little jealous....

Pinwheel, Pinwheel spinning around*

aimee noel — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 05:36:00 +0000

pinwheelblanket
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I love this pattern. I'm too lazy to get the link for you, but it's so much fun to knit. I was getting a bit bored with it, so I threw in some eyelet rows. I'm going to knit this again, but in different colors. I might use the same yarn.. It's just Red Heart Soft yarn... and darn, it's soft compared to regular Red Heart. It also washed decently, so I dont' have to worry about how well it wears.

I'm planning a red and white blanket for my cousin's baby (that might or might not be twins..) So then I'd have to knit a second one.. maybe blue and white or red and black or just different stripe patterns between the two? hmm... Plus, my sis-in-law might be expecting again... so I'd do one for her. Exciting stuff!

*Title for this post is taken from an old little kid's show. All I can remember is the opening song and that there was this pinwheel spining on the screen that always made me sick..

Bunny

aimee noel — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 05:31:00 +0000

bunny
Originally uploaded by a-chan.

I knit this little guy for a friend's baby. It's been a couple of months since the baby shower, but my sis-in-law kindly gave me this picture recently so I could post it. The eyes are a little lopsided, but I guess that's okay. The body of the bunny is actually a really cute green that didn't turn out well in the picture. I was going to knit some more of these guys with this yarn, but I can't seem to find it anymore. He's really soft!

Who knew blocking could be so much fun??*

aimee noel — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 23:05:00 +0000

Grr. I don't like blocking all that much.

Okay, I guess before I can really get into what I was blocking, I should write about the Knitting Olympics. I signed up to knit the Blackberry from knitty. I started knitting it two days late. Then, once I found my groove, I thought, "Oh, this will be so easy to finish!" Wrong! I came upon bobbles. Let me tell you, I hate them more than I hate blocking. So after three or four false starts on the first sleeve, I threw them out the window and said, "To hell with bobbles, I didn't like them that much in the first place!" Then, since I had originally wanted thumb holes in the sleeves, I had to figure out the best thumb hole method. I found one I liked.

So I finished the first sleeve with like 3 days left. I figured it would be no problem doing one sleeve and the ribbing in just 3 days. Wrong! I got up to my elbow with two days left. Saturday I needed to go to my cousin's good-bye party because he's going to Afghanistan for over a year. I totally planned on knitting at the party and getting that sleeve done. Wrong! I started getting a migrane and it's hard to knit during serious times (at least for me), and I kept losing my way.

Sunday, the last day, I just couldn't knit with my migrane. I'm sure that if I was just doing St st or garter stitch I could have done it. But cables were just too much for me.

I know this sounds like a bunch of excuses.. However, at the two day mark, I decided I couldn't stress myself out about it because, well, it's just knitting. Nobody would die if I didn't finish. Nobody would even probably be upset that I didn't finish. So, that said: I took a full week off from my Greenberry (so named because I knit it in green). Now I'm almost done with the second sleeve. I pulled apart the sections that I hastily sewed together and now I'm properly blocking them (with the scuncii steamer none the less). I should finish the second sleeve while that is drying.. No pictures yet, but I do plan on taking them. I totally forgot about this window in the basement (where I'm blocking the Greenberry), so I should be able to get some alright pictures from there.

I feel totally ambitious now. As soon as I'm finished with the Greenberry, I'm going to finish Alivia's dress (add a couple of inches, change the straps to I-cord), then I need to finish the Pikmin hat. That's for this week.

Oh, and I can't forget Team Portland. Even if only some of us finished, it was cool to knit along with other Portlanders.

*Please note the sarcasm

I need to prioritize!

aimee noel — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 02:47:00 +0000

My last post was just a rambling of what I'd like to get done and stuff. I need to make a better list because the stuff that needs to get done, won't get done... And the stuff that doesn't need to be done, will be done. So here it goes:

Projects that need to be finished before the end of this month:
* Alivia's dress (knitting done, just need to "finish")
* Pikmin hat, I need to design it so Valeska and Katie and finish theirs before March 24th (Sakuracon)

Projects that need to be done before the end of Feb:
* Richard's Hufflepuff hat (started)
* Prayer shawl (3/4 of the knitting is finished)
* My anime hat
* Alexandria's baby blanket (that's been on hold a full year!)

Projects with no finish date:
* Arm warmers for myself
* Fingerless gloves for paintball
* afghan made from the knifty knitter
* amigurumi (little knit/crocheted animals/monsters/things)

Of course I'm not going to work on my top two items tonight. That would just be silly!! *Rolling eyes* I think I'm working on the Hufflepuff hat. I'm using a variation of THIS PATTERN from the blue blog

And some time in the next month, I'd like to put a list of the blogs I visit regularly in my sidebar... and maybe make a new layout, I get a little weirded out when I go to other knitting blogs that have the exact same layout. I also need to organize my stash and stuff.

Sorry, no pictures tonight... I need to find my camera.

Knit blogging, what's that?

aimee noel — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 04:02:00 +0000

Well, it's been awhile since my last update. I keep reading all my favorite knit blogs and if they haven't been updated, I'm all like "Geesh, you'd think people'd keep these things up to date." Then I remember my poor neglected blog and think, "I should work on that tonight." And I don't.

Part of the reason is being busy and hardly having time to knit, let alone blog. Another reason is that I always forget to take pictures of my FO's before I hand them off to their new owners.

I did finally get pictures of some things I knit for my sis-in-law and nieces (some of the items are 2 years old) (and the pictures aren't really the greatest, I don't really feel like messing with them to make them look right):

As for current projects, well, there's no pictures right now:

*I'm currently working on a dress for Alivia. It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I lost the groove on it. I hope to finish it before spring...

*I got some knifty knitter looms for Christmas from my mom. So I've decided to knit a blanket out of cheap acrylic yarn (red heart) and then back it with some flannel or something. It should be pretty warm. (yes, already started).

*A prayer shawl I started a couple of months ago. I believe it's going to my grandma, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Some projects I want to start (but of course I'll have to finish some others before I start these because they'll require more yarn buying...):

*Some fingerless gloves for my uncle, cousins, my brother and my boyfriend. Apparently they use them for paintball so their knuckles are protected, but they still get some warmth and free use of their fingers. *colors must be black, dark green, dark grey, or dark blue. (the ones they currently use are falling to pieces!)

*I still want to knit some arm warmers for myself and maybe a pair of mittens.

*I still need to make Richard a yellow and black hat to match the Hufflepuff scarf

*I came up with an idea for an anime hat. That'll be fun.

*Before March, I need to come up with a pattern for Pikmin hats so we (me, Katie, and Valeska) can knit them up for Sakuracon

I don't really like these things, but...

aimee noel — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 06:00:00 +0000

I've been playing with my ipod today. Kinda boring, really. I tried knitting, but I wasn't coming up with anything I wanted to knit, so I stopped. I need to go and buy some yarn for my trip to Disneyland so I don't get bored (yeah, bored at Disneyland...)